Parenting Coordinator Training - Day 3

Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Time: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (EACH day)
UBC Robson Square (HSBC Hall), 800 Robson Street, Vancouver
Live Course SOLD OUT—Live Webinar still available

Who should attend: All those wishing to offer parenting coordination as part of their client services: family lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, parenting coordinators, and mental health and collaborative professionals.

Learning level: All levels

Background
Parenting coordination is a child focused-dispute resolution process offered to separated, divorced, and divorcing parents who need assistance in child-centered issues. Parenting coordination helps the parents and their child(ren) move forward to healthier and more satisfying decisions.

This 40-hour training is suitable for mental health professionals, mediators, and lawyers. Experienced family law lawyers, counsellors, social workers, family therapists and psychologists who have special training in mediating and arbitrating parenting disputes also require 40 hours of parenting coordinator training under the Family Law Act. Attending this 5-day training will satisfy the 40-hour requirement. No previous experience or knowledge of parenting coordination is required. The training will include discussions using case vignettes, audio-visual materials, demonstrations, and role plays.

The Program

Presented by Dr. Fidler, the focus on the Day 3 will be “Voice of the Child”. She will review the social science research on the benefits and cautions of listening to the voices of children and adolescents. She will identify various ways the child’s voice can be obtained and integrated into different dispute resolution options such as child representation, mediation, assessment, parenting coordination, and judicial processes. Dr. Fidler will discuss factors related to the reliability of the input provided by children and adolescents, including interviewer bias, memory, suggestibility and maturity. Finally, she will summarize a developmentally informed interview protocol.

Wine and Cheese Reception on Day 3: time and location TBA.

For full details of the 5-day program, click HERE.

Law Society of BC CPD Hours: 8 hours (a minimum of 1 hour will involve aspects of professional responsibility and ethics, client care and relations, and/or practice management)

Course Instructors
Barbara Jo Fidler, PhD — Family Solutions, Toronto
Matthew J. Sullivan, PhD — Palo Alto

Planning Committee
Stephanie L. Fabbro — Hamilton Fabbro Law Corporation, Vancouver
R. Craig Neville — Watson Goepel LLP, Vancouver

Pricing 
Day 3 ONLY
EARLY BIRD (Register by August 19, 2013 and SAVE)
Live Course/Live Webinar: Regular $620

Registration includes workshop materials.

CLEBC Program Coordinator
Mary Kingston, Production Manager, Programs
mkingston@cle.bc.ca

Course Instructors
Barbara Jo Fidler, PhD — Family Solutions, Toronto
Matthew J. Sullivan, PhD — Palo Alto

Planning Committee
Stephanie L. Fabbro — Hamilton Fabbro Law Corporation, Vancouver
R. Craig Neville — Watson Goepel LLP, Vancouver

About the Course Instructors

Matthew J. Sullivan, PhD is a native northern Californian, who received his AB from Stanford University and PhD in clinical community psychology from the University of Maryland in 1985. Since that time, he has been in private practice in Palo Alto, California, specializing in forensic and clinical work in the Family Courts. His full-time private practice focuses on work with high conflict shared custody situations. He serves in a variety of court-related roles, including mediator, coparent counselor, parenting coordinator, testifying expert, and consultant. He has written numerous articles and book chapters, and presented and done trainings at national and international venues on topics such as high-conflict divorce, parenting coordination, child alienation, mental health consultation in family law cases, and court-involved therapy.

Dr. Sullivan is currently serving on the editorial board of the Journal of Child Custody, and serves on the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) international board of directors and the AFCC California board of directors. He was co-chair of the AFCC task force which developed guidelines for Court-Involved Therapists and served on the AFCC Task Force on Parenting Coordination, which developed the first guidelines for Parenting Coordination practice. Dr. Sullivan served on the American Psychological and American Bar Association working group on legal and psychological interventions with children and families. He is the co-founder of Overcoming Barriers, inc., which is a non-profit organization that has developed a variety of programs for high conflict shared custody arrangements. Dr. Sullivan received the 2012 Joseph Drown award for outstanding service to children, presented by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, California chapter.

DAY 3: Wednesday, September 18—Dr. Barbara Fidler

Voice of the Child: Methods & Considerations For Involving Children in Dispute Resolution Work

• voice of the child: perspectives for and against
• involvement of children in mediation, assessment, wishes and preferences reports, parenting coordination, and judicial processes
• reliability of children’s reports: relevant factors—interviewer bias, social influence, memory, suggestibility, and undue influence

Afternoon

How Children and Adolescents Think: Maturity and Development

Interview Format and Protocol

• types of questions: continuum of suggestiveness from open-ended to leading questions
• demonstration
• discussion

Wine and Cheese Reception: time and location TBA